We're in the midst of the interminable mid-August hockey lull, and news is sparse. But neither CBA uncertainty, nor a lack of material can deter Allan Mitchell! On this week's episode of Nation Radio, Allan is joined by the likes of player agent Tom Lynn, Andrey Osadchenko, Nations overlord Kent Wilson and Scott Reynolds of NHLNumbers and Copper and Blue. Allan and his guests breakdown the news of the week, gush about Nail Yakupov's play at the Subway Super Series and, of course, suss out some reasonable expectations for Jordan Eberle.

Russian hockey writer Andrey Osachenko of allhockey.ru, the Hockey News and the Nation Network joins Allan to chat about the age old hockey rivalry between Canada and Russia, as well as the 2012 Subway Super Series.

Scott Reynolds of Copper and Blue drops by to chat with Allan Mitchell about C+B's top-25, the relative merits of Yakupov, Hall and Nugent-Hopkins, the NHLNumbers team annuals, and how difficult it is to acquire "power forwards."

Ryan Whitney is a good guy who admits that the call that levelled the women's semifinal soccer game between the US and Canada at the Olympics was "bogus." He also talks with Jason Gregor about hockey, CBA negotiations and his long road back from a recent ankle injury.

Re: Wilson's prediction of the Flames finishing spot (i.e. lucky to be in contention for 8th)

The Flames actually dealt with an unusual amount of injuries last season. They had one of the highest total man-games lost to injuries in the league. Feaster may have refused to use that as an excuse, but it undeniably had an impact.

If the Flames injuries regress towards league average next season they could do better. Throw in the fruits of what might be considered a modestly successful off-season, a new star-rookie, and a new coach + coaching system that might actually complement the roster and the Flames could turn in a surprising season.

I'm still not impressed with tsn/ctv as hockey provider. Still haven't seen the Olympic games my idiot cable provider told me would be free past April/2010. How do you find someone who shows tsn2 in the morning?! I spent lots of money and time watching tsn2 four buses away, and a hike away, to watch Chi/Det 2x last year at the MicMac Mall and in Cole Harbour's Boston Pizza. Will tsn2 or anyone online rebroadcast games one and two?! In Wpg there are two cable providers and one requires employment while the other gives anyone your your account password...

Dumba dropped to maybe 10th overall in my mind. Boy I feel good about myself hyping Zlobin. He is a better 1st round pick than Pearson. He should've been Memorial MVP as well as a 2nd round pick. Either he is very mentally ill, very drunk, a very huge team distraction ala J.Brown, or Scout are racist against Russians (okay to be a little prejudiced against nation of 90's divers and now KHLers). He reminds me of Jeremy Williams, the tv analyst of the latter said: He is like a Ryder I guess (a one dimensional goal scorer making $4m/yr)...
Russia played a simple strategy of shots on net game #3. Their breakout was weak; kept hitting the brakes and passing to a 1-2 FW streaker. They only came with 2 FWs usually because stuck breaking up Canada's cycle.
We don't have the FWs to finish like in 2007. So many 2 on 1s were wasted as Canada went for the robotic both-skaters-skate-to-corners one timer. The 2nd player should've closed the gap occasionally or tried to run the goalie. The same way you run a CFL draw play to RB every so often just to keep of few extra defenders on the line of scrimmage. Without the finish, the Canadian over passing is bad coaching; the coach should be picked to fit the team. Wow, we are really weak in net now. Ward sucked at WHC, the Chi pick sucked. All the defence, I guess this proves 1996 was more Richter than having Norris trophy winners? Russia goalie good angles; will be a keeper.
It is a little too spiffy for hockey players to expect fans to stick around for a work stoppage every contract cessation. In 2004 I tried betting on NBA instead and watched the best depth chart S.Kings lose to individuals...
after watching Ticats tackle like women (not since being paid $5 to marker a HS game have I seen defenders joggingly watch a RB run by instead of tackle if a lockout I'll watch the CFL practises.
I'd rather watch games 2 and 1, I wanna see if we deserved our game 3 5-3s too...than watch Mex beat Brazil, but CTV is making me a soccer fan...the future of sports to me is grading refs. The CFL, I've watched bad reffing. You only call every 3rd infraction...but still, I'd like to see intermission or post-game reffing appraisals of what 3 out of 4 judges think was missed and what shouldn't have been called. I'd watch good hockey refs and good MLB umps moreso if I knew who called the Bombers for clean QB hits.

...their keeper handled those 2-1 robotic one-timers, but not back-doors. Without the 1st two games shown by any biz in a city, I don't know most of Russia; their D. In the Olympics Canada had worse goaltending than Swe, Cze, Fin, USA....We might not be able to medal in 2014 if whoever coaches the team keeps a bad goalie in. If we have the FWs and D we are okay. Have enough centres...